she's threatening to break quarantine, which is supposed to last until next weekend. >> i don't plan on sticking to the guidelines. i remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me, even though i am in perfectly good health. if the restrictions placed on me by the state of maine are not lifted by thursday mortganing, will go to court to fight for my freedom. >> maine is one of several states that require anyone with possible ebola exposure to stay at home for three weeks with medical checks twice a day. the state is also preparing to take to a judge to force the nurse to comply. and another big ebola story line here. today defense chief chuck hagel signed orders to separate all troops returning from west africa for three weeks. he calls it an incubation period, but they call it a quarantine period. even though deployed soldiers are not to have had contact with ebola patients overseas. >> this is also a policy

discussed in great detail by the communities, by the families of our military men and women. and they very much want a safety valve on this. so, in response, this morning was give me within 15 days the operational specifics of how that would work. and then i believe we should review that policy within 45 days. >> it's a different approach. and administration's guidelines from civilians returning home from west africa. president obama says that's exactly as it should be. >> they are not there voluntarily. it's part of their mission that's been assigned to them by their commanders and ultimately by me, the commander in chief. we don't expect to have similar rules for our military as we do for civilians. >> regardless, this is a desperate push by medical professionals to make sure

america understand they pose zero risk unless they're symptomatic. if they're an ebola carrier, they cannot get you sick unless they have a fever. chris jansing has been traveling with the u.n. ambassador to west africa, samantha power. >> there is fear out there about what ebola is. the people of liberia have experienced this firsthand because fear and misunderstanding and incomplete understanding of the science impeded the early days of the response. and in the united states, ebola is also a very new disease. it's the first time people have thought about ebola. >> health care workers meeting with the president have been in west africa or gearing up to head over there. world bank reiterating fears upon their return might keep 5,000 workers from returning. there are 13,000700 reported ca.

kristin welker gets us started at the white house. what should we expect from the president in his address in about 40 minutes? >> first of all, you can expect dr. kent brantly to introduce president obama. the optics meant to reassure the american public that ebola can be dealt with. that the administration is on top of this. president obama will thank the health care workers for their service, for their dedication and likely defend the administration's handling of this issue here in the united states. i anticipate we'll hear similar comments to those he made yesterday on the south lawn when he talked about why this administration is opposed to a mandatory 21-day quarantine. administration argues it could disincentivize health care workers to go to west africa to stomp out this disease at its root. of course, they need thousands more health care workers to go

overseas to get a handle on this. i anticipate those are some of comments you'll hear from president obama. and it comes just as we're learning that the military has, in fact, imposed that 21-day mandatory quarantine. when asked about this during the daily press briefing, whether this sent mixed messages, white house press secretary josh earnest said it didn't. the military is a separate entity from those volunteers going to west africa. similar comments we heard from president obama. clearly, this is the debate that's going to continue in the coming days, particularly as we see what is happening in new york and new jersey and now maine with the nurse there, nurse hickox, who said she is not going to abide by the mandatory quarantine that has been put in place. ari? >> that's a controversy people will be following closely. kristin welker at the white house. thanks for your reporting. for more on the politics of ebola, we'll bring in bryant boitler, senior editor at "the new republic." you look at this and think back to other times we've had

different levels of crisis and people saying about the president, why doesn't he get angrier or understand his job is partly theater? and it is. when you look at deepwater horizon, calls for him to go to the border, and now calls, not just from republicans, he needs to be more forceful, more angry about the threat to the nation, it seems to run against the precedent here that we have a pretty calm evidence-based commander in chief who is going to let the evidence lead him and not a membomentary need for the theatrics. >> i think the fact that president obama addresses the nation two days in a row, maybe he was too cool about his imperative outset but it doesn't mean the president needs to be withdrawn. >> when you say he was too cool at first. what do you mean? >> this is something people worry about. there's no nationwide panic but

something the public wants regular updates on, reassurances about. and those sorts of reassurances can actually further the president's goal of stemming, you know, too much panic or too much fear about this. and his initial approach was, you know, this is not a big danger, so i don't need to be, you know, super public facing about it didn't pay off when we saw the first case and then the transmissions in texas and then the situation in new york and then the situation in new jersey. and president obama can actually advance his goal of keeping the public cool about this by interfacing them more than he was at the outset. >> maine governor paul lepage is trying to force kaci hickox to be in quarantine until, i believe, november 10th even though she remains asymptomatic. she got out of chris christie's quarantine and now she's in maine and falling into a potential paul lepage

quarantine. just when i thought i was out, they pull me back in. there's a battle, it seems, between the white house and the states quarantine issue. why is the white house losing this battle even though they have science on their side? >> i think there's something very intuitive about these ideas of -- about quarantine, about travel bans. you know, it makes sense to people at an intuitive level when the science and the experience with this disease suggests that the opposite is -- that for public health workers, for volunteer health workers who are experts, who know how to take care of themselves and know how to check themselves for symptoms, it is completely safe to not quarantine them and let them self-report. and imposing quarantine upon them will reduce their willingness to go fight the illness at its source in west africa. so, the politics locally for whether it's paul lepage or cuomo or christie, you know, quarantine sort of makes sense from that perspective.

from the per peculispective of white house which wants to, first and foremost, get ebola under control at its source, the opposite is the case. the white house is in the constant tug of war with governors everywhere. somebody who might have had contact with an ebola patient and ends up -- you know, if that's where they live or whatever. >> it is incredibly disheartening that politicians seem to be guiding their response here by what they see in the polling on a public health crisis is, to me, just unbelievably troubling. turning to the midterms, more and more politicians are seizing on ebola as a political issue. we've seen an uptick in the number of ads mentioning ebola before october 21st. we've got the numbers on the screen. there were 484 ads mentioning ebola. now between october 21st and 24th, just three days, we had 734 mentions of ebola. i mean, are public fears

actually at this level where this is an effective issue for politicians coming down to the wire here in this midterm election? >> so, i think the hope here is that this works on the margin. there's -- political science supports this idea that a public that's sort of afraid or panicked or terrorized, their politics end up leaning a little more conservative. i think the hope here is that, you know, as senator rand paul did and other republicans have done, if you ratchet up the fear factor about ebola, then people who are conservative republicans, who might not have voted, will vote or the few, you know, swing voters who haven't made up their minds yet will ultimately decide to vote for the conservative candidate. i don't think that this reflects an actual state of public panic. the polling suggests that the vast majority of people have faith. whether they believe there should be quarantines or travel bans, they actually have faith

the federal government working with state governments can prevent the spread of the disease in the united states. so, this isn't mirroring the public. this is hoping to motivate people at the margin. >> and feeds into the overall narrative of uneasiness so the government can't get a handle on our greatest problems, including isis. i want to ask you about the ebola czar, two weeks ago today we heard the president was going to appoint an ebola czar, ron klain to not only lead this effort but to also make us feel a lot safer. in the past two weeks, maybe i'm missing something, but i haven't seen ron klain at all. josh earnest was asked about this a few moments ago. >> even before ron started in this job, we were clear, at least i was clear, about describing his role as one that was principally behind the scenes. and that the need for him to play that coordinating role

would limit his ability to make a large number of public appearances. >> i mean, brian, limit his ability, i don't think he's had any appearances. we just have a misunderstanding as to how public that role would be? >> yeah, i think that that's basically right. and i think that the fact we've seen president obama now twice in two days is a stand-in for the idea that the ebola czar was going to be the public face of the nation's ebola response. in fact, it's going to be the president. ron klain's job is to manage a very complex inter-agency process that involves the cdc, the department of defense, the faa, the national security council. he needs to make sure that they're not stepping on each other's toes, they're all on same page both in terms of public communications and responses. sort of like the white house has a legislative liaison, a liaison to capitol hill supposed to keep members of the white house and congress on the same page. and that person almost never enter takeses with the press. ron klain is being super

bureaucrat behind the scenes. i'm not sure that means we'll never see him at a press conference or that he won't hold background discussions with reporters at some point, you know, between now and when his job comes to an end. but the public-facing role of trying to keep the public informed and, you know, not on knife's edge about the situation, you want your public communicators like the president or his official spokes people doing that job. >> super bureaucrat, just in time for halloween. >> you know, only in washington would people say someone who was working a lot and not self-promoting obviously have some kind of work ethic problem as to how they measure it. thank you for your time. up next we'll look at why the u.s. is increasing security at buildings near you but says not to worry. and we are, as we mentioned, expecting to hear live from the president in about half an hour fresh off his white house meeting on this ebola response. we'll bring that to you as soon as it happens. "the cycle" rolls on for wednesday, october 29th.

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happening throughout the united states, federal buildings are seeing beefed up security, not because of a specific threat but remains nonspecific. the enhanced measures are beginning at some of the more than 9500 federal facilities. more than a million workers and visitors pass through these doors every day. homeland security officials

telling our pete williams it's largely in response to isis as well as that attack on canada's parliament hill, and machete-wielding radical right here in new york city. no specific threat but we find ourselves once again 13 years after 9/11 facing a new front on this war on terror. friend of the show, david ro rothkoff's new book "national insecurity" how super power operates on super crisis mode. david, thank you for being with us. >> great to be back. >> i would argue the game hasn't even changed since the months you've written the book. >> well, there seems to be new examples of kind of these outbreaks of fear that are capitalized on politicians. and you were just talking about it in your last segment. you know, i heard somebody yesterday observe that fewer americans had died of ebola than have actually been married to kim kardashian. >> you saw that, too? >> it's true, it's true.

>> that was awesome. >> puts it in perspective. this is a giant health crisis in africa. it's a public health issue in the united states. but people are trying to capitalize on it. you said, 1100 commercials in the last couple rounds of the campaign. and that's -- you know, that's ebo ebola. it's not isis. it's not al qaeda. it's not the other things that have driven this insecurity for the past decade and a half. >> that doesn't even get into the public health issue of paying too much attention to kim kardashian. >> that's a mental health issue. >> we could talk about that all day. >> you write about the different styles, you compare george w.h. bush to president obama and how they handle foreign policy. president bush being very decisive, making a decision and going with it, compared to president obama who is very reactionary. he likes to think on it, get all the information, take a number of meetings before he makes that decision. and oftentimes the situation has evolved from that point. how have those two different styles impacted where we are today?

>> well, i think there's an irony in this. you know, bush and the team in the wake of 9/11 first reacted much as any other president would, but then by moving into iraq arguably overreacted by doing some of the things we did with the patriot act or doing some of the other things we did to wage this war on terror, seem to overreact. the signature move of that whole period was a war in iraq. obama was ee lengthed to go in the other direction, has gone, i think, effectively too far in the other direction, is underreacting. that has caused new threats to rise and the signature of that looks like it's going to be a war in iraq. so, that's a kind of tragic irony. >> david, it is another fascinating and really interesting and important book for you. very well written. thank you for this book. everybody should read this if they want to understand where we are in terms of america right now. you talk about we're in this era of fear that began on 9/11. we see this infecting every

department in america and the way that we deal with isis, the way we deal with ebola and immigration and even the nsa. fear is cloaking everything we do in this country. but you also write the actions of bush and obama may have planted the seeds for the beginning of the end of the age of fear. where do you see that, sir? perhaps that's wishful thinking. if you look, we swung one way, swung back too far the other way. i think history shows us when people try to seek the middle. you look at 2016, who are the leading candidates? mitt romney, hillary clinton, perhaps jeb bush. those candidates are much more to the center and i think that's much more where the appetite of the american people are, at least on these issues. they want america to lead. they want it to do with a positive agenda going guard. they don't want this kind of overreaction.

but they also don't want an america that's sitting on its hands letting problems get worse overseas. we've seen both of the extremes. i think they want effective leadership, effective leadership from the center. >> david, is our government, is our military set up to respond to these rising threats with the sort of flexibility that the situation calls for? >> look, we have the most capable military in the world. we are the only country on the planet earth that can wage a war in space, on land, on sea and in the air. we can project force anywhere we want to on the planet. the military is exhausted from the past decade. but the capability of that military still remains much greater than anybody has anywhere else. i think what the military needs is clear leadership from the civilian side of the government, leadership that is not reactive but is actually in pursuit of a strategy. and i think what we've seen over the course of the past several years has been more reactive.

we see a crisis. we respond to it. we see potential bad press, we respond to it. and when we try to articulate a strategy as the president did with regard to isis, we don't really get fully to where we identify our goals, the outcomes, who's really going to help us do the heavy lifting and how we're going to get there. >> and those problems may leave some americans wanting to pull back. we hear a lot of talk about isolationism. there was a big cover story in "national journalism" finding there really isn't much isolationism in mainstream debate. he notes we have troops in over 150 countries in some capacity. and that for all the talk of the "i with t "i" word we're on the other extreme, and folks like rand paul doesn't prefer pulling back from most of those positions. >> isolationism has changed. when the united states was founded and george washington and his colleague spoke about avoiding foreign entangle

manies, it was possible to do that. there were big oceans. it was hard to connect with the rest of the world. today most people in most jobs, most lives, travel the world, see the world via media, connect to the world in their jobs. we're interwoven into the rest of the planet. 9/11 and the financial crash and other things have all illustrated that overseas problems become domestic problems pretty quickly. having said that, the question is whether our impulse is to lean in to leadership around the world or to lean away from leadership around the world. and we've tilted in both directions. and we need something a little bit more balanced going forward. >> we should lean forwards. >> well, you guys are leaning forward, that's what you're supposed to do. >> well, it's a very, very insightful book. next time we'll have you talk about all things kardashian. >> nice. >> that's why i'm here. coming up, the latest on the investigation into what caused that nasa rocket explosion last night. and we, are less than a week to

election day but voting is already under way. ari went down to texas and brings us his original reporting on the high stakes in the lone star state ce? tomcat presents dead mouse theatre. hey, ulfrik! hey, agnar! what's up with you? funny you ask. i'm actually here to pillage your town. [ villagers screaming ] but we went to summer camp together. summer camp is over. ♪ [ male announcer ] tomcat. [ cat meows ] [ male announcer ] engineered to kill.

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reliably fast internet starts at $89.95 a month. comcast business. built for business. . nasa's planned december 9th rocket launch is now in question this after following the dramatic explosion of last night's launch in eastern virginia. >> on its third mission to the iss. main engine at 108%. >> that footage is crazy. stunned spectators on the ground, on television, among commentators couldn't believe what they were seeing as that unmanned rocket just disintegrated in a fireball only six seconds after lift-off. fortunately, no one was hurt but there was catastrophic damage all around the area in what nasa

is classifying as a $200 million mistake. tom costello is on wallops island with more on what we might be learning for future missions. >> reporter: nasa now has a big job along with orbital sciences, that is to get out onto the ground. out onto the launch pad, into the marshland, into the beaches and into the water to look for any debris. and that is a big job because you had, of course, this massive explosion. three-quarters of a million pounds of fuel that then ricocheted. this explosion ricocheted through the air and through the water and this massive amount of debris. they have to pick up all that debris, catalog it, identify it, bring it all together and then begin the very arduous task of trying to reassemble everything and determine what exactly might have caused this explosion. you mention this was an unmanned rocket. we hasten to add that and underscore it yet again on a resupply mission to the international space station with

this equipment and this food and the clothing and that kind of thing. the astronauts on board the space station can do without it. they've got enough to last until march. there was another resupply mission that lifted off last night from kazakhstan and another one from space x in december. so, there are plenty of missions ferrying supplies to the international space station. but clearly this is a setback for orbital sciences, one of two commercial vendors nasa has turned to to help ferry supplies to the international space station. what went wrong, they don't know. they'll look at a number of things. i want to underscore that, a number of things. among them, they'll look at the engines on the rockets. they were actually from the soviet era. they were russian-made soviet rockets that had been refurbished and had been certified, but then were being used by this particular vendor to lift the payload up into earth's orbit. about 200 miles above the

surface of the earth. so, did that in any way contribute to the accident? we simply don't know. what we do know is as the stages were lifting off, it appears one collapsed on top of the other one and then foreseen disaster, the nasa controllers quickly hit the self-destruct button and blew the entire thing up instead of an accident hurting the communities along the eastern shores of virginia. they're thankful nobody was hurt or killed. as someone said earlier today, it's a matter of losing some metal and some dollars. they have to figure out now what went wrong. >> thank you with that incredible footage from virginia. now beturn to texas where 970,000 people have already voted early, 20% of the entire turnout from the last midterms but that doesn't mean it's easy to vote. this is texas's first general

election under that new strict voter i.d. law. i went to dallas this week to report on how that law is affecting people on the ground and what some groups are doing to mobilize in response. we have that report for you right now on "the cycle." >> if you came to praise god, my bible says make joyful noise unto the lord. >> reporter: it's sunday morning at baptist church in dallas. pastor haynes is getting his 12,000 member congregation getting ready to worship ♪ >> reporter: and ready to vote. >> when i say freedom sunday, i need you to clap like you are appreciative of the fact that you have the right to vote. >> reporter: several churches across texas are headed from the pews to the polls. and invoking the 1964 freedom summer campaign for a new freedom sunday, to counter texas's strict new voter i.d. law. people in this community and from what you've been doing, do

they feel voter i.d. laws are targeting them? >> no question. disproportionately black, brown and poor people find themselves without the i.d. that the state now requires. even college students. there's something wrong. okay, my gun license is okay, but not my college identification? >> reporter: just weeks before the election, a lower court threw out texas's voter i.d. rule but the supreme court reinstated it while the case is on appeal. dissenting, justin ginsberg said it's likely an unconstitutional poll tax and may require texans from not voting. >> very few people violated the right to vote through inappropriate, fraudulent behavior so it's a needless law. >> reporter: she runs a democratic voter protection agency in the state and she says her organizers field calls all day and are ready for the new law. >> we have assembled and built this voter protection program.

it is the largest, most coordinated in texas's history to make sure that every eligible voter is going to be able to cast a ballot to count. >> reporter: others say texas has made voting too hard. >> i've gone twice to get the voter i.d. card. she comes back, we're out. you have to wait until next week. >> reporter: there's no way to determine how many others face similar problems. and texas isn't counting. congressman castro wants the feds to audit the impact. >> how many people were turned away from the polls or discouraged from voting because of the new requirements? >> reporter: yet others including vicente hall, a 56-year-old who voted sunday in dallas, say gop efforts at voter suppression could have the option effect. >> it's just something about being told you can't that makes you want to get out and do it, you know. it's just that rebel in you. >> and i definitely heard both of those themes in my reporting. people like that voter who said, this makes me want to make sure we get out there but others who were having too many problems

saying, it shouldn't be this hard to vote in 2014. >> i think there is a little confusion. i would love for to you explain it, as to why texas, why the law there is different and why it ended up coming down to this. but also having got ton know some of the folks on the ground there and seeinging polling stations and if the law were less strict, do you expect the outcome will be quite different than tuesday? >> that's what congressman castro and others want to have measured. we've seen the turnout affected by two, three or more points in some places. while supreme court said some kind of voter i.d. can be allowed, can be legal as in the case of indiana, the texas law is considered one of the most unfair in the nation. that's why eric holder targeted with the voter rights lawsuit that he won. that's one thing that frustrates people about the courts and lawyers, saying this law was ruled unfair and discriminatory but in the meantime we're going to keep enforcing it in this

election and maybe later the supreme court will decide it was illegal all along. >> discriminatory. great reporting. i thought it was compelling, the reverend who said, yes, absolutely, we feel targeted because it's black people, brown people, poor people disproportionately impacted. toure, we saw in 2012, there was so much attention on these laws. that people really went above and beyond to overcome it, but i worry, as time goes on, in some of that attention fades, then it just starts to erode the vote because there are just too many barriers in place for people. >> yeah. i think over time the hurdles to voting would outweigh that motivation to tell them, you said no to me, so i'm going to go out anyway, especially when you don't have a black president at the top of the ticket. that really motivated a lot of folks. it was a great package. congratulations to you. i'm glad to see you do a little dip into a black church. hope you got the spirit while you were there. i went -- thinking of this whole issue, i read richard posner's

blistering dissent, which everybody should read. he's a conservative. >> reagan appointee. >> he destroys all the arguments folks try to use to defend this. one of the things he says requiring photo i.d. is inif he effect actual against voter fraud, of which there are a few. intimidation, vote buying, tampering with electronic machines. >> they don't seem so worried about those. it's funny. >> i mean, to call this about voteser integrity when you only care about voter i.d. is like saying a horse's tail is a leg. it's silly. like the reverend said about disenfranchising black, brown and poor people. when i think about a poll tax, that this is, it makes me very sad. >> it's sad. that's not politics, left/right, it's whether all people have the right to vote however they want to vote. it was interesting to look at that. we'll keep on the story. up next, the group trying to make it all around easier to vote, wouldn't that be nice, theme of the day, the countdown to the midterms is on. so guys -- it's just you and your honey.

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cycling right now, we are awaiting remarks from the president in the east room of the white house on ebola and our nati nation's response to the ebola crisis. we're expecting dr. kent brantly to come out and introduce him and speak first. brantly, of course, is that doctor who was infected while he was in africa, came back, was treated successfully here, has now recovered and donated some of his blood to other ebola victims here in the u.s. who have also recovered. and, you know, ari, looking forward to the president's remarks here, i think one thing that is remarkable is the fact we've seen him two days in a row feel the need to come out and essentially reassure the public about this crisis. >> yeah. what you have here with the president is obviously some desire to come out and make

these remarks with purposeful repetition. we see the doctors, i believe, here coming out onto the stage here in the white house for these expected remarks from the president as well. and this really goes to the pattern here, which is the science is a lot harder than some of the politics. so, we've seen governors run out and push this, push quarantines. the white house assembling this group. we hear the applause. the president expected to join them on stage. >> it's important to put it in proper perspective to remind people, there have only been two americans that have been infected here in the united states. and that's something the president continues to remind us. also the fact this is not an airborne disease. this is something they're getting under control, as you were saying, ari, something we did not expect to come here to the united states. now we are trying to find a way to get control of it. still waiting for the president to come out. >> the first person we'll see

speak is dr. kent brantly, who survived having it is disease. hopefully the face of survivors will be the face of this thing as we move away from the fear and see that the american health care system can deal with patients who come here and get treated within a sufficient amount of time. here comes the president. >> dr. kent brantly. [ applause ] >> in december of 2013, a young child in a remote part of guinea became the first unfortunate soul to suffer the scourge of ebola virus in west africa. since that time, more than

10,000 people have contracted the virus and more than 5,000 have died in eight countries. the medical professionals of the three nations hardest hit by this epidemic -- liberia, guinea, sierra leone -- have fought with gallant effort against this menace but they need the help of the international community to turn the tide of this devastating outbreak. many members of this audience have already offered themselves in sacrificial service to the people of west africa. and others are preparing to go. it is my distinct honor today to thank these brave individuals for the gift of their love to their fellow human beings for putting the needs of others above their own. the world owes them a debt of gratitude. but the struggle is far from over. more medical personnel are desperately needed. at this time, perhaps more than

any other, we feel the impact of our position as citizens of not only the united states of america but as citizens of the world. we must strive together for the good of all mankind to put an end to this disease. in times of world-changing tragedy, we have often recognized the office of the president of the united states of america as not only the leader of this, our own country, but as an international leader representing the best interests of us all as global citizens. it is my privilege at this time to introduce president barack obama, who will share some remarks. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. good afternoon, everybody. and thank you, dr. brantly, not just for the introduction but

for your extraordinary work to help save lives in africa and here at home. as many of you know, i welcomed kent and his wonderful wife, amber, to the white house last month. and i was so moved by their deep faith, a faith that grounds their unwavering commitment to service, that i thought it would be a good idea to have him back. amber, you've been making sure he's been eating properly. keith and amber, are you an inspiration to me and to the people around the world and on behalf of all of us, thank you so much. thank you. [ applause ] as i said yesterday, we know that the best way to protect americans from ebola is to stop the outbreak at its source.

and we're honored to be joined today by some of the -- some of the extraordinary american health workers who are on the front lines of the fight in west africa. we just had an opportunity to meet, to talk, for me to hear about their service in truly challenging conditions. and some of these men and women have recently returned. others are heading there shortly. but all of them have signed up to leave their homes and their loved ones, to head straight into the heart of the ebola epidemic. like our military men and women deploying to west africa, they do this for no other reason than their own sense of duty. their sense of purpose, their sense of serving a cause greater than themselves. we need to call them what they

are, which is american heroes. they deserve our gratitude. and they deserve to be treated with dignity and with respect. now, over the past few weeks i've met and spoken with doctors and nurses who have treated ebola patients. that includes some who have been diagnosed with and beaten ebola himself, like kent and like nurse nina pham, who i was proud to welcome to the oval office. and i want to say to all the doctors and nurses out there what i've told the doctors and nurses here today. each of you studied medicine because you wanted to save lives. the world needs you more than ever. the medical professionals and public health workers serving in africa are a shining example of what america means to the world, of what is possible when america leads. i said this at the u.n. general assembly. when disease or disaster strikes anywhere in the world, the world

calls us. and the reason they call us is because of the men and women, like the ones who are here today, they respond with skill and professionalism and courage and dedication. and it's because of the determination and skill and dedication and patriotism of folks like this, that i'm confident we will contain and ultimately snuff out this outbreak of ebola. because that's what we do. a lot of people talk about american exceptionalism. i'm a firm believer in american exceptionalism. you know why i am? it's because of folks like this. it's because we don't run and hide when there's a problem. it's because we don't react to our fears but, instead, we respond with common sense and

skill and courage. that's the best of our history. not fear, not hysteria, not misinformation. we react clearly and firmly even when others are losing their heads. that's part of the reason why we're effective. that's part of the reason why people look to us. and because of the work that's being done by folks like this and folks who are right now, as we speak, in the three effected countries, we're already seeing a difference. i just had a chance to be in the situation room, samantha power, our u.n. ambassador, has been traveling through the countries and talking to professionals and seeing what's on the ground.

and she was describing the -- how because of our military, we're already setting up ebola treatment units ahead of schedule. we're already setting up supply lines. she described how a chinese airplane was landing in facilities we helped organize and liberia and chinese and american folks were pulling supplies off and deploying it because we set up the infrastructure and got there early. the world is now starting to respond. some of the labs we set up are cutting the test to see whether somebody is positive for ebola from what was as long as seven days, now to less than a day. that means people know sooner whether they have it, they are able to get isolated quicker,

less likely to spread it. if they don't have it, they can be with their families quicker. there's less fear and anxiety. safe burial practices are happening in monrovia. the way people were treating the deceased was a contributor to spreading the disease. because of the leadership we have shown on the ground, the mood in liberia has changed. people have a greater sense of confidence this can be dealt with. you are seeing liberian nationals who are increasingly willing to work as part of the public health teams. so, we are having not just affect by what we do directly, but also by a change in mind set in the countries affected and around the globe. that's what's happening because

of american leadership and it is not abstract. it is people who are willing to go there at significant sacrifice to make a difference. that's american exceptionalism. that's what we should be proud of. that's who we are. none of this means that the problem has been solved. i don't want anybody to lose a sense of urgency. in those country that is are affected, this is still a severe, significant outbreak and it's going to take time for these countries to battle back. we have a long way to go. but, i do want americans to understand why this is so important. this is not just charity. although, kent's faith is driving him to do that. i would like to think that, that sense of faith and grace

motivates all of us. this is practical. it has to do with our own self-interest. if we are not dealing with this problem there, it will come here. now, we have a responsibility to look out for our health workers as well as they look out for us. that's why on monday, the cdc announced new monitoring and movement guidelines that are sensible, based on science, that were crafted in consultation with the people going there to do the work. they are tailored to the circumstances of each health care worker. but, we have to keep in mind that if we are discouraging our health care workers who are prepared to make these sacrifices from traveling to these places in need, then we

are not doing our job in terms of looking after our own public health and safety. what we are -- what we need right now is these troops out there leading globally. we can't discourage that, we have to encourage it and applaud it. i want america to understand, the truth is, until we stop this outbreak in west africa, we may continue to see individual cases in america in the weeks and months ahead. because that's the nature of today's world. we cant seal ourselves off. the nature of international travel and movement means that the only way to assure that we are safe is to make sure that we have dealt with the disease

where right now it is most acute. so, yes, we are likely to see a possible case elsewhere outside of these countries. and that's true, whether or not you adopt a travel ban, whether or not you adopt a quarantine. it's the nature of diseases, as long as ebola exists in the world, no one can promise there won't be more cases in america or any place else. to prevent its spread and ultimately to keep americans safe, we have to go to the source. while preparing for the few cases that we see here. and protecting our health care workers treating patients both here and home and abroad. the good news is that our medical system is better prepared for any additional

cases and will continue to work with hospitals, state and local health agencies to improve that preparedness every single day. and, although coordinating that nationally as well as internationally is a process and there are constant tweaks and modifications as lessons are learned, it's based on 40 years of experience based on the disease z. it's not all new. and it will get done. so, i guess my biggest message, and i'm pretty sure this is a message all the folks behind me, including the ones with the white coats would confirm, is that it's critical that we remain focused on the facts and on the science. keep in mind that of the seven americans treated for ebola so

far, most of them, while serving in west africa, all seven have survived. right now, the only american still undergoing treatment is dr. craig spencer who contracted the disease abroad working to protect others. and we salute his service. we are getting him the best care as well. but, we know how to treat this disease. and now that the west african nations of senegal and nigeria are ebola free, we know this disease can be contained and defeated if we remain individual lent and america continues to lead the fight. we have hundreds of americans from across the country, nurses, doctors, public health workers, soldiers, engineers, mechanics putting themselves on the front line. they represent patriotism at its best. they make huge sacrifices to protect this country we love.

when they come home, they deserve to be treated properly. they deserve to be treated like the heroes they are. there are americans like dr. dan who is here today. dad is an officer in the u.s. public health service who took a leave at the national institute of health to volunteer with doctors without borders in liberia where he cared for 200 ebola patients. dan, thank you. proud of you. dan is right here. [ applause ] >> americans like katy, her father was the head of cdc for hiv/aids when that emerged. she started to become a public health expert and charted her own health course, most recently

in a canoe. she and her team traveled to a village that was so remote, they took canoes to treat them. when they arrived, the chief wore a pittsburgh steelers cap. [ laughter ] >> today, katy completed her mission, is on her way home. i can promise you, thanks to katy and her team, her legacy for future generations there will go far beyond sports teams. we are talking about americans like captain calvin edwards, father of four, works at the fda in harrisburg, pennsylvania. like dr. dan, he's also an officer in the u.s. public health service. on his 29th wedding anniversary, carrying a pillow from home and a copy of the new testament, he took deployment to oversee a

team in liberia. before he did, he made sure to buy his wife a dozen roses. as he boarded the plane to monrovia, cap pain edwards reminded his team of an oath to defend the country. they are all there right now, making us proud. of the 69 public health service officers like these doctors and captain edwards, chosen for the mission, not a single one declined, not one. they all stepped forward. i know that with all the headlines and all the news, that people are scared. i know that ebola has concerned them. but, the reason i'm so proud of this country is becau